The UConn School of Law Class of 2026 has selected Professor Steven Wilf as the recipient of the Perry Zirkel \u201976 Distinguished Teaching Award.
In their nomination, students praised Wilf as \u201can outstanding educator who challenges students to think beyond black letter law, emphasizing broader implications and real-world application.\u201d They noted that he balances intellectual rigor with accessibility, pushing students to think deeply while remaining supportive and engaged.
Wilf approaches teaching with an eye toward the future, often asking himself what students \u201cwill need to know when practicing a decade from now \u2014 even two decades \u2014 which is especially important in a rapidly changing area of law such as intellectual property.\u201d Students echoed this sentiment, describing his teaching as dynamic and continually updated to reflect modern legal developments.
\u201cIt means a great deal to be recognized by graduating students, and this well-deserved honor reflects Professor Wilf\u2019s lasting impact both inside and outside the classroom,\u201d said Dean Eboni S. Nelson. \u201cHe challenges students to think deeply, connects the law to the realities of practice, and is committed to their success.\u201d
Wilf teaches Criminal Law, Development of the Regulatory State, Intellectual Property Law, Copyright, and several seminars focused on the regulation of knowledge. He also founded UConn Law\u2019s Intellectual Property Program.
The teaching award was established in 2016 through the generosity of Perry Zirkel, who graduated from UConn School of Law in 1976. He became a professor of education and law at Lehigh University and served as dean of the university\u2019s College of Education.\u202fThe UConn Neag School of Education also honors a faculty member each year with the\u202fDr. Perry A. Zirkel Distinguished Teaching Award.
Past UConn Law recipients include Rachel Timm (2025), Bethany Berger (2024), Leslie Levin (2023), Mary Beattie (2022), Julia Simon-Kerr (2021), Jessica Rubin (2020), Alexandra Lahav (2019), Paul Chill (2018), Richard Pomp (2017), and Jeremy McClane (2016).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Perry Zirkel \u201976 Distinguished Teaching Award is decided according to vote by the graduating class, after nominations are selected by a committee of students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":246301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1857,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2418],"class_list":["post-245692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 04:17:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245692"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246302,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245692\/revisions\/246302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/246301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245692"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=245692"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=245692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}